As the contenders enter the final stretch before the April 14 Liberal leadership convention, Vancouver MP Joyce Murray says she believes she has the lead in registered supporters.

Murray told the Star’s editorial board Tuesday that by focusing on issues such as Liberal-NDP-Green cooperation, electoral reform, environmental sustainability and the legalization of marijuana, she has built a broad, enthusiastic base of support. The former BC environment minister said that, while the numbers remain murky, she believes she has more registered supporters than even presumptive frontrunner Justin Trudeau.

Here are excerpts from the conversation:

Looking at your platform, you see policies like sustainable environment, sustainable health, sustainable food, democratic reform, women, legalizing cannabis. This is a great platform for someone who wants to be leader of the NDP. But you’re not running to be leader of the NDP; you’re running for the Liberals. So what’s specifically Liberal about your platform?

Well, I’m a big supporter of the Clarity Act and I’m certainly not for 50 per cent plus one to break up the country. One of the core values of the Liberals is the unity of our country and I’m 100 per cent for that.

The NDP are coming closer to the Liberals in saying that the economy matters, but one fundamental difference is that the Liberals are not tied to organized industry or to organized labour. This means the Liberals can bring forward bold and sometimes courageous solutions to complex public policy challenges of the day – from any part of the political spectrum. Whether it’s balancing budgets after a string of 19 deficits, as Jean Chretien did with Paul Martin; or whether it’s something on the rights side like the Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms or same-sex marriage; or whether it’s about equal opportunity and some of the programs to alleviate senior or child poverty; or whether it’s about protecting the abundance of biodiversity in our country; or free trade – the Liberals have brought forward solutions to those complex challenges.

The Liberal Party is a party based on core liberal principles of individual freedom, opportunity for everybody, the equality that has to underpin that opportunity, and the responsibility to build and protect institutions like the rule of law that protect those freedoms. The Liberal party’s primary mandate is the public interest – not the interest of any particular segment of society.

Conventional wisdom obviously is that Justin Trudeau is going to win. If you’re going to go right through to the convention, you must think there’s some hope for victory. What do you see as the path?

I’m on the path. We’re very happy with the support that I got through the supporter category. I’m in the running. The people who came in to support me are people who see the policies and the game plan for being able to implement those policies as something that’s hugely motivating. A huge number of people care about the issues I care about and see me as a voice for them. A lot of people who are supporting me signed up because of endorsements like David Suzuki’s or awareness-raising by groups who care about the environment, democracy, women’s equality, an integrated food policy. Ballpark: we brought in tens of thousands of supporters and got 70 per cent registration. In fact, we are very confident that our numbers of registered supporters are higher than anyone else’s in this campaign. I can’t prove that, but that’s our assessment.

On electoral reform:

I am in favour of a system that has the principle of proportional representation. What I’m saying is that I think we need to change our electoral system from first-past-the-post, because it’s supporting the toxic, divisive and unethical behaviour we’re seeing in parliament and by government. First-past-the-post may have been workable in previous eras, but because of the changes to the political system and the increased toxicity and exaggerated polarity and because of the, frankly, hundreds of millions of dollars from right-wing think tanks to figure out how to program people and frame things in a way that may be untrue but effective, that makes first-past-the-post no longer work for us. It’s an unhealthy system.

On oil and gas:

Wherever possible, we should have an approach where we serve our own oil and gas needs, where we maintain those jobs here, and where we put a price on carbon. We need to figure out how to use this incredibly valuable asset as a springboard to get to where we need to go: a lower carbon economy. How can we use it help power Canada to develop the alternatives we have to have both for the environment and for a value-added economy.

On taxes:

I would look at the whole framework of our tax policy. I think it’s been used as a partisan tool over the last seven years with these boutique tax expenditures – and I don’t think that’s good public policy. We need to review our whole tax system. And it certainly makes more sense to tax harms than goods, which is where legalizing, regulating, taxing and controlling cannabis comes in. The estimates suggest that would generate somewhere around $2 billion per year. And I would certainly remove the subsidies from the oil and gas industries as we promised the international community we would do years ago.

On electoral cooperation between Liberals, NDP and Greens:

A lot of Canadians want this. They don’t want vote splitting to deliver another Conservative false majority – and that’s what our system allows.

Do you see the Liberals as naturally more aligned with the NDP and the Greens than with the Conservatives?

I think that’s true for this particular Conservative government, which is a Reform Conservative party, but that’s not the reason I’m promoting cooperation. Both of the other parties have electoral reform as official party policy; the Conservatives do not, so we need to defeat the Conservatives in order to change our system. Do I think it’s in Canada’s best interest to defeat the Conservatives anyway? Yes!

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